Portable Wi-Fi Drives for your smartphone

Limitations in storage capacity on iOS devices have been rather crippling. This sentiment has been felt, ever since the first iPhone was launched, way back in 2007. The lack of expandable storage was quite a disappointment and this becomes apparent when one tends to record a lot of video in HD with a naturally high file size. Most Android users have it a little better as they have the option of adding a microSD card to expand storage, but sometimes this too isn't enough.

A new trend seems to be catching on with manufacturers who specialize in storage solutions that take the portable hard drive to a whole new playing field. Providing a viable option for a portable NAS solution, these new drives will help boost your iOS and Android device’s storage. Here’s a quick look at what’s available in India today.

Kingston Wi-Drive
The Kingston Wi-Drive is a solution designed for iOS devices, but Android owners can benefit from it, too. The drive is available in three capacities - 16, 32 and 64GB. Dressed in glossy black with a silver rim and ultra slim design, the Wi-Drive is aesthetically designed and made for easy portability. The app interface for the Wi-Drive is extremely easy to use. It features a dedicated media player, but supports only basic video formats, like MP4, H.264 and 3GP. That translates to you having to convert files to an iPhone/iPad acceptable format for playback on Android as well.  However, in order to play video content that’s not standard to your handset, i.e. is not natively supported, you’ll need to get a third party player. Unfortunately only Android offers free options (MoboPlayer or Rockplayer). The GoFlex app will allow you to choose from the players you’ve installed for files you wish to access.

Kingston Wi-Drive

The drive also supports a bridge connection, allowing one to be paired with a Wi-Fi network for browsing and simultaneously for streaming data from the drive. The Wi-Drive supports up to three devices with playback of the same file simultaneously across all three. It does have a few noticeable restrictions, but is surely best ergonomically designed for portability.

Transcend StoreJet Cloud
Following in the footsteps of the Kingston drive, Transcend recently unveiled their StoreJet Cloud. When it comes to looks, it doesn’t do very well. It features a glossy black top panel, a matte black rear panel and a silver border. It features a USB 2.0 interface for transferring files to and from the drive to the PC.

To enable the drive on a smartphone, all one needs to do is download the StoreJet Cloud app via iTunes or the Google Play store, dump files onto the drive via a PC and just stream content off the drive. Like the Wi-Drive, the StoreJet Cloud also features bridge connectivity for simultaneous web and drive browsing capabilities. The interface is easy to use and in terms of features, the Transcend and the Kingston options are nearly identical. One advantage is that the StoreJet Cloud allows you to pair the device with up to five smartphones/tablets at the same time.

Transcend StoreJet Cloud

The app for the drive sports a built-in media player, allowing one to play videos and other media from within the app itself. There’s support for quite a few formats preloaded and for those that aren’t natively supported, once again a third party option will come to the rescue. The standard definition and high definition playback from the drive is decent in terms of streaming and copying files to and from the drive to your handset/tablet. The option to copy files is another trump card over the Wi-Drive that’s designed for streaming only.